Huddled Masses Highball

Huddled Masses Highball

Here’s a toast to this perfect puzzle, packed with similarly complex components. It’s a drink I created last year for a cocktail competition that resonates well with the idea of a packing puzzle. It’s also a toast to the city hardest hit in America in recent days, the gateway to the world, and serves as a tribute to all of the people around the globe who are effected.

Tequila with bitter lemon soda would be good enough, but let's pack a few more pieces in here

The drink is a “highball”, traditionally a base spirit diluted heavily over ice with soda water in a tall glass. In this version, which features aged tequila, there are a few unusual and unexpected flavors provided by French Genepy des Alpes and Italian Amaro Abano which bring floral, herbal and bitter notes. Genepy is a wildflower herb which grows indigenous in the Alps, where its liqueur is a popular apres-ski staple. Milder than the more popular Chartreuse, it can be used in a similar fashion in cocktails. Amaro Abano is a medium bitter after dinner digestif quite popular in the Veneto region of Italy, where the Abano spa it is named after resides. It features flavors of the wild herbs that grow naturally in the region, infused with cardamom, cinnamon and bitter orange peel. Bitter lemon is used to top off this highball rather than plain soda water, to complement the tequila (which pairs well with citrus), and a little ginger sweetness to balances everything nicely. It’s a delicious drink and might help you solve your own self isolation induced packing puzzles right now. But just mix up any highball variation you’ve got ingredients for at home right now, and raise your glass to creative packing solutions – cheers!

This pair is well packed

Huddled Masses

1 ½ oz Reposado tequila

½ oz Genepy des Alpes

½ oz Luxardo Amaro Abano

¾ oz ginger liqueur

Fever Tree Bitter Lemon

Build in a highball glass with ice, stir and top with the Bitter Lemon. Lemon twist.